Book Review: A Court of Roses and Thorns
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Fantasy, Romance
I finally caved and read one of, if not the most, hyped up fantasy books online because of my friend. Overall, I need to stop reading overhyped books and rather pick up more underrated books. If it wasn’t for my friend, I probably wouldn’t have picked up this book though even if this wasn’t the greatest fantasy ever, it wasn’t the worst either.
Continue reading for more details.
Synopsis:
When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a terrifying creature arrives to demand retribution. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she knows about only from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not truly a beast, but one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled her world.
When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a terrifying creature arrives to demand retribution. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she knows about only from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not truly a beast, but one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled her world.
At least, he’s not a beast all the time.
As she adapts to her new home, her feelings for the faerie, Tamlin, transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie she’s been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But something is not right in the faerie lands. An ancient, wicked shadow is growing, and Feyre must find a way to stop it, or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.
Review:
Feyre is tough, that’s for sure. The things she went through were scary and the situations she was put in, even for someone like Feyre who is used to supporting her family by hunting in the woods near the border of the human territory and faerie territory. That’s where she first got involved with the faerie world. Though, Feyre did things that other faeries had trouble with, like catching the Suriel. Especially because she was a human, this made things more odd and abnormal. Other than that, she did know how to hunt and had skills from her time hunting animals which helped her in some trials she went through. She was a quick thinker and knew how to survive as well which I admired (because I knew I wouldn’t last a minute in her place haha).
Feyre is tough, that’s for sure. The things she went through were scary and the situations she was put in, even for someone like Feyre who is used to supporting her family by hunting in the woods near the border of the human territory and faerie territory. That’s where she first got involved with the faerie world. Though, Feyre did things that other faeries had trouble with, like catching the Suriel. Especially because she was a human, this made things more odd and abnormal. Other than that, she did know how to hunt and had skills from her time hunting animals which helped her in some trials she went through. She was a quick thinker and knew how to survive as well which I admired (because I knew I wouldn’t last a minute in her place haha).
“I threw myself into that fire, threw myself into it, into him, and let myself burn.”
Tamlin was sweet, patient, and was trying his best to help Feyre adjust. I’ve been told he’s going to become worse in the second book but I love him so far. Him, and the rest of his spring court, are stuck wearing masks because of this curse. Even with his mask, Tamlin is still described as beautiful and handsome but I don’t know why Feyre was so insistent about wanting to know how he looked behind the mask and seemed to have trouble getting over the fact the mask was hiding part of his face when it really didn’t matter so much. I did find it a bit sketchy why Tamlin, for a faerie, was being so sweet to Feyre at the beginning but he seemed genuine later on. I enjoyed how he stood his ground when he needed to and was smart and quiet when he needed to be.
Rhysand….Rhysand. I don’t understand why everyone is head over heels for him. I’ve also been told that he is going to be better than Tamlin. I’ll believe it when I see it. In this book, I hated him with a burning passion. The amount of insults I threw at this guy whenever he showed up in the book was crazy. He was seriously the biggest red flag I’ve ever seen. The way he invaded Feyre’s privacy and absolutely mortified her was insane. I wanted to actually choke him right there and then. Though, yes, he did slowly improve as the book went on, he still did things that I found disgusting. I have no clue how there is any way I’m going to like him more than Tamlin.
“Pity those who don't feel anything at all.”
Feyre and Tamlin didn’t have much chemistry. Their relationship seemed really quick and sudden. It just happened. They started flirting and liking each other even though Feyre hated faeries. She was so wary of everything when she first got to Tamlin’s place, including Tamlin himself, so when she suddenly started growing an interest in him out of spite I wasn’t really impressed. Though, I didn’t hate their relationship throughout the story. How committed Feyre was to him was surprising and impressive, especially because of their short time together. Tamlin, he did do some things out of love it seemed, just not as committed as Feyre.
Also, apparently the romance between Feyre and Tamlin was supposed to be a beauty and beast sort of thing. I didn’t realize this even after everything that was revealed, though now I’m thinking about it I do see it now. Though the problem I had with this was that Tamlin really wasn’t a “beast” other than his obvious shape shifting abilities into a beast. He wasn’t hard to love other than the fact Feyre didn’t like faerie’s because of what humans believed they were, which kind of destroys the whole point of a beauty and beast retelling, though I liked the effort.
Also, apparently the romance between Feyre and Tamlin was supposed to be a beauty and beast sort of thing. I didn’t realize this even after everything that was revealed, though now I’m thinking about it I do see it now. Though the problem I had with this was that Tamlin really wasn’t a “beast” other than his obvious shape shifting abilities into a beast. He wasn’t hard to love other than the fact Feyre didn’t like faerie’s because of what humans believed they were, which kind of destroys the whole point of a beauty and beast retelling, though I liked the effort.
“I love you,’ he whispered, and kissed my brow. ‘Thorns and all.”
The fantasy was based around the concept of faerie’s and I did like learning about the different types of faeries and courts. The world building was pretty good as well, I understood the layout of the lands and politics. Though, the pace of this book was quite slow at the beginning. The real fast paced action and events started after the halfway point of the book. The stark contrast between the first half and second half of the book was noticeable. I keep on forgetting that both of those were part of the first book and not two different books. The first half was more world building, getting the foundations set for the events that were to occur later on, getting the relationship between Feyre and Tamlin going, and all of that stuff. Quite peaceful and slow. The second half was so much more hooking and fun. There were actual tough obstacles that Feyre had to face and more depth than in the beginning of the book. I was also impressed how every twist and turn and event had a reason behind it. Nothing seemed too confident or random. Everything had a reasonable cause to it which I liked because coincidences are so annoying.
“We need hope, or else we cannot endure.”
Overall, this was an okay book. Not super bad or good. The second half was definitely more exciting and the faerie concept was pretty interesting. Also, everybody is sleeping on Lucien (Tamlin’s friend and emissary). Like he is seriously one of the best characters in this whole book and such an amazing friend. The amount of times he’s risked himself to help Feyre and, in general, helped her out was amazing. I absolutely love him. All in all, there are better fantasy books out there but this one isn’t extremely hard to get through either.
“I was as unburdened as a piece of dandelion fluff, and he was the wind that stirred me about the world.”
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